Grooving attachment for resawing machines



y 13, 1952 J. E. BRESNAHAN 2,596,365

GROOVING ATTACHMENT FOR RESAWING MACHINES Filed March '7, 1947 ATTORNEYS Patented May 13, 1952 GROOVING ATTACHMENT FOR RESAWING MACHINES James E. Bresnahan, Fitzsimons, 0010.

Application March 7, 1947, Serial No. 733,008

2 Claims. (Cl. 144-41) This invention relates to improvements in resaw machines and has reference more particu larly to an attachment for such machines for use in the manufacture of laths.

In the building of houses, especially of wooden frame houses, it is customary to apply building laths to the inside of the frame member, such as the 2 x as. After this lath has been applied in spaced relation, the inside is plastered and the plaster extending through the spaces between the laths forms keys for securing it in place. In such construction, the lath itself adds very little to the heat insulating properties of the wall and is used primarily to support the plaster.

Where the ordinary building lath is replaced by boards having tongue and groove connection along their edges and provided on their inner surfaces with grooves to which the plaster can extend so as to form anchors, a better heat insulating construction as well as a stronger wall results.

Such laths have been shown in U. S. patent No. Q5936 issued January 17, 1865.

In order to make the anchorage between the plaster and the lath secure, it is necessary to undercut the grooves, either by inclining both walls thereof in the same direction, as shown in the patent above identified, or by making dovetail slots. The making of dovetail slots is very difficult as is also the making of oppositely inclined slots.

It is the object of this invention to produce an attachment for an ordinary type of resaw machine by means of which the resawed boards can be grooved on one side simultaneously with the resaw operation and which, therefore, will not add anything to the cost of manufacture, because the grooving and the resawing take place simultaneously.

Machines for resawing boards are old and well known and on page 1920 of Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary, 1882 edition, such a machine has been shown in Figure 4267. This is merely mentioned for the reason that applicant has not illustrated and does not intend to describe in detail a resaw machine, but has shown and will describe only such parts thereof as seem to be necessary in order to explain his present improvement.

Having thus, in a general way, set out the objects of the invention, and the principal features thereof, the invention will now be described in detail and for this purpose reference will be had to the accompanying drawing in which the invention has been illustrated, and in which:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a lath showing the same after it has been grooved;

Figure 2 is a cross section taken on line 2-2, Figures 1 and 3 and shows the grooved laths after the board has been resawed;

Figure 3 is a top plan view showing a portion of a resaw machine, parts being broken away to better disclose the construction, showing applicants attachment in position;

Figure 4 is a side elevation of the machine shown in Figure 3;

Figure 5 is a section taken on line 5-5, Figure 4, and shows the grooving tool in top plan View;

Figure 6 is a side elevation showing two grooving tools in operative position; and

Figure 7 is a fragmentary end view of the grooving tools shown in Figure 6.

The lath that forms the ultimate product of the machine and its attachment has been shown in side elevation in Figure 1 where it has been designated by reference numeral It. One side of the lath is grooved as indicated at l I. In Figure 2 the two parts of the resawed board have been shown in section as they appear after the resawing and grooving operation. The grooves l I have been shown as arranged in pairs, the grooves of each pair being oppositely inclined.

The resaw machine comprises a base [2 of usual construction having a band saw blade 13 which it passes around suitable pulleys in the well known manner.

Although in the present embodiment, a band saw has been shown, it is to 'be understood that a circular saw may be used, if desired, such being illustrated in the publication above identified.

The resaw machine consists of two spaced pairs of rollers. The rollers of one pair have been designated by reference numerals l4 and the rollers of the other pair by reference numerals I5. These rollers are journaled in suitable bearings in the base and are interconnected so that the rollers of each pair rotate in opposite directions. The two pairs of rollers are power operated and feed the board It} into the resaw machine, the blade of which has been shown in section in Figure 3. In the embodiment illustrated, the upper ends of the rollers have been interconnected by bars to so as to give support to the upper ends; however, this is not essential and. the parts designated by It may be omitted, if desired. Board m, which is of the ordinary three quarter inch thickness, is split by the saw into two parts, as shown in Figure 3. During the resawing operation, the board travels from left to right as indicated by the arrows.

As above stated, applicant claims no novelty in the resaw machine, but he has added thereto a grooving mechanism in the form of an attachment. This grooving mechanism consists of bars ll, one on each side of the board. These bars are rigidly connected with the base, and if members It are used, their upper ends are also connected with members it. It is essential that the parts numbered It shall 'be rigid and firmly connected with the machine. Any suitable means of accomplishing this can be used. Secured to bar I! are grooving tools or plows IS which have been shown to a greater scale in Figures 5, 6 and 7 and which are made of tool steel or some other 'similanmetal provided at their rear ends with parts l9 that overlap the supporting bars I! and are seciiid to them by means of bolts 20. Since the grooves are comparatively narrow, and since the grooving tools 58 are subjected to heavy strains, it is necessary to provide the ends of the grooving tools with cutting projections like those designated by reference numeral 2 i. In Figure 7 these projections have been shown inclined in opposite directions, the two tools Wand 18a. forming a pair. In order to limit the depth to which the groove is cut, each tool is provided with shoulders 22 that slide along the outer surface of the board and limit the depth of the groove. As many pairs of these grooving tools can be used as arenecessary, the number depending upon the distance between the grooves and the width of the boards. Either simultaneo'lisly with the resawing and grooving, or afterwards, the resawed boards are processed to form tongues 23 and grooves 24 so that they may be interconnected by these tongues and grooves in the ordinary manner.

When the resawing machine is operating, th board travels from left to right, when viewed as in Figures 3 and land during this traveling of the beard, it is split into two parts by means of the saw and the outer surface of each of the two parts is grooved as shown.

The resawed laths are preferably three-eighths of an inch thick and the grooves are limited in depth to whatever extent may be found necessary or desirable. Such resawed boards grooved on one side with their edges tongued and grooved are admirably adapted to form an inner sheeting for a wall in the manner shown in U. S. patent above identified. After this resawed lath has been put into place, the plaster is applied to the grooved surfaces, and since the plaster is applied in moist conditions, portions thereof will enter the grooves forming keys for anchoring it in positi'oh.

Applicant does not claim any novelty in the lath itself, nor in the ordinary elements of the resaw. machine, but he claims and believes that he has inventeda new combination by adding to the ordinary resa'wmachines, grooving tools so positioned and arranged with respect to the feed rolls and the saw blade that they will effect the grooving operation simultaneously with the resawing and which will therefore not delay in any way the production of the lath over what would be required if the boards were merely resawed.

In the above description and in the drawing, the grooving tools or plows have been shown as positioned with their sharp ends pointing in the opposite direction from that which the board travels. A tool of this kind is comparatively simple to make, and since it can be provided with shoulders like those designated by reference numeral 2'2, the depth of the grooves can be strictly determined.

Attention is directed in particular to Figures 6 and 7 which show that projections 2| that extend beyond the shoulders 2-2 are inclined with respect to the plane of the shoulders and therefore cut grooves that. are inclined with respect to the plane of the resawed boards. It is evident that grooves inclined as shown in Figure 2 cannot be made by a rotating plow which can cut grooves with parallel walls perpendicular to the plane of the boards or inwardly taperinggrooves.

If it-is found that the boards have a tendency used in connection with exterior stucco constructo split along the places where the grooving takes place, this may be prevented by adding a bar 25 (Figure 5) adjacent the grooving point 2| so as to obtain an action similar to that of an ordinary plane.

It is to be understood that the lath may be tion, as well as with inside plastering.

It is also contemplated to use these lath with an outside construction for roofs and walls and in which hot asphalt or tar products are rubbed on the lath and crushed stone or gravel applied to the outer surface thereof.

Having described the invention-vvhat is claimed as new is:

1. In a machine for making grooved lath, having two pair of rollers mounted for rotation about parallel axes and between which a board having parallel faces is adapted to be fed, means for sawing the board in two, parallel 'to the faces, after it has advanced beyond the first pair of rollers, means for grooving opposite faces of a board as it is fed through the machine and before it is sawed, said means comprising a rigid bar 'on each side of the board, between the rollers, andat least one grooving tool rigidly attached to each bar, said tools terminating in plow points facing in the opposite direction from that in which the board moves, the plow points having parallel faces inclined transversely withrespect to the plane of the board, said plow points projecting inwardly beyond the surface of the board whereby, as the board travels throughthe machine, the plow point of each tool will cut a groove of the shape of the plow point. 7

2. A base, a saw blade operatively associated therewith, two pairs of board feeding rollers mounted on the base for rotation about spaced vertical axes, the rollers of each pair being on a opposite sides of the plane of the saw blade, a

rigid vertical bar on each side of the saw blade rigidly attached to the base in the space between corresponding rollers of the pairs, and at least one grooving tool attached to each rigid bar, each tool having a plow point projecting through a plane tangent to the inner peripheries of the rollers on the same side, the plow point projecting in the opposite direction to that in which a board is moved by the rollers whereby a groove is gouged therein, the plow point having substantially parallel sides and being laterally inclined at an angle to said tangent plane whereby the grooves cut thereby in a board will be inclined relative to the plane of the board.

JAMES E. BRESNAHAN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in th file of this patent: V

UNITED STATES PATENTS Young et a1. ..7 Aug. 12., 1 941 OTHER REFERENCES Knight's American Meohanical Dictionary, Fig. 4267, page 1920, 1882 edition, (vol. III) 

